Microsoft reportedly will finish work on Windows 8 by summer, setting the stage to release the next version of its flagship operating system sometime around October.

Bloomberg, citing "people with knowledge of the schedule," also reports that there will be fewer than five devices running the ARM system-on-a-chip architecture at launch. Those ARM chips allow for thinner, lighter tablet devices, something that Microsoft hopes will help it cut into Apple's iPad's huge lead in the tablet market. The Cupertino rival just disclosed that it sold more than 3 million of its latest iPad since the third-generation gadget debuted Friday.

The report confirms the timing that most analysts have been expecting. Bloomberg notes that Microsoft will lay out the details of the release schedule at an industry event in early April.

^ This. I haven't even put Windows 7 on some of my machines... though this will spur me to upgrade all of them sooner than later. Windows 8 is probably a bit out for me, even if it's not a skip generation which it might well be.

Why is three years too soon? Windows 7 was released two years after Windows Vista. Back before the huge gap between XP and Vista Microsoft adhered to a two-three year release schedule & after Vista was finally released Microsoft announced that it was going to return to that release schedule.

I'll take the opposing side that three years between OS releases is far too long. In the IT world three years is an eternity.

Why is three years too soon? Windows 7 was released two years after Windows Vista. Back before the huge gap between XP and Vista Microsoft adhered to a two-three year release schedule & after Vista was finally released Microsoft announced that it was going to return to that release schedule.

I'll take the opposing side that three years between OS releases is far too long. In the IT world three years is an eternity.

We'll have to agree to disagree. Upgrades, yes, I can see that. But the OS is the base of your applications platform. When you introduce major changes wholesale, especially requiring total rework and upgrade of your system, such upheavals aren't productive, IMO.